On the structure of periodic complex Horadam orbits

Numerous geometric patterns identified in nature, art or science can be generated from recurrent sequences, such as for example certain fractals or Fermat’s spiral. Fibonacci numbers in particular have been used to design search techniques, pseudo random-number generators and data structures. Complex Horadam sequences are a natural extension of Fibonacci sequence to complex numbers, involving four parameters (two initial values and two in the defining recursion), therefore successive sequence terms can be visualized in the complex plane. Here, a classification of the periodic orbits is proposed, based on divisibility relations between orders of generators (roots of the characteristic polynomial). Regular star polygons, bipartite graphs and multisymmetric patterns can be recovered for selected parameter values. Some applications are also suggested.